Our laboratory is studying axonal and synaptic electrophysiology, using new techniques for intracellular recording from vertebrate peripheral myelinated axons and motor nerve terminals. We plan to see if the prolonged depolarizing afterpotential we discovered in frog and lizard axons also occurs in mammalian axons. We plan to study the ionic currents in motor nerve terminals, and to correlate these currents with the rate of transmitter release from these terminals. We will also study how various cholinergic drugs (agonists, antagonists, acetylcholinesterase inhibitors) affect the electrical properties of motor nerve terminals.